


Darkness and Lightning

by roguelightning



Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-01-13 12:10:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21243869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roguelightning/pseuds/roguelightning
Summary: There was only one way the ruler of the Underworld can claim a mortal as her own. This was not it. The fact that said mortal managed to get on both her brothers' nerves didn't help matters.





	1. Chapter 1

The Underworld was unusually quiet that day, she noted as she strolled along the river. Her long black dress pooled at her feet as she moved by, barely touching the water. Mortals feared that river and her protector, but Styx was one of her oldest friends. She was the one that would guide the mortals to her realm and she was the one that tried to soothe their fears.

It still bugged her from time to time, the way the mortals feared her, but she supposed the legends were to blame for that. And for that, she had her brothers to blame. They had taken the sky and the sea from her, and she was left with nothing but death and darkness. Still, she had learned to bask in it, to accept the darkness as her companion and to relish the touch of death.

It may have seemed like a dark path to take for a goddess and her first years had been indeed difficult, but she had managed to find a purpose in all of this. The first time a killer had sent a mortal to her shores, the first time she had seen the relief in his eyes as he realized that he had got to a place where nobody could hurt him, was the first time she had found a reason for her existence. To that mortal, and to the ones that had followed him, she would be forever grateful. Still, a small part of her couldn’t help but wonder what they had escaped by death if being in the realm of a goddess who had a three headed dog for a pet was preferable.

Yet, the mortals that had gone to her realm were the only ones that loved her. The rest of them were more… complicated. The ones that believed in her didn’t dare to speak her name, calling her and her followers demons, and the rest refused to think about death so they denied her existence. Most of the times, that didn’t bother her. She was happy to live in her world of dreams and make believe, to build an empire where every mortal would finally feel accepted by the others.

That was before she had laid her eyes upon him, however. She wasn’t supposed to get attached to a mortal; her brother had been clear about that. Then again, as far as she was concerned, her brother was the less qualified person in all Olympus to give love advice.

The one that had got her attention had been born on a stormy night, around 30 years before and his mother had said he was going to be a child of light. It was ironic, come to think at it, that she wanted to claim him as her own, to plunge him into darkness.

Truth was, she had been entranced by him the minute she had first laid eyes upon him. He was strolling near a waterfall, lost in his thoughts – she was going to find out that this was often the case with him-, and she had lost herself in his eyes a lot faster than she should have.

Everything she had learned about him afterwards only made him more puzzling. He called himself a scientist and didn’t believe in her or her brothers for that matter. Not an issue, as far as she was concerned. The other mortals called him a wizard and treated him with a mixture of fear and respect. For that, she was a tad jealous – she knew that feeling well, but she would have bet anything that the fear was greater when it came to her. Still, not a deal breaker. Not when she had realized that he was everything that her brothers had taken from her. They didn’t get along too well, her brothers, so creating a stormy sea together was something that didn’t happen too often. Still, she found the colors of such a storm in his eyes. And even if he didn’t have her brother’s powers, he could control electricity and the lightning listened to his calling.

Perhaps that was why her brother didn’t like him, come to think at it. Perhaps that was why he had insisted that the only way she was going to have this mortal was the same way that she ended up having any mortal. She was not to touch him until death would gift him to her.

Still, she hadn’t become queen of the Underworld by listening to her brother all the time. So she felt no remorse when she left her realms and manifested herself in front of him.

She stepped out of the flames, expecting him to flinch at that, but he did no such thing.

“Fascinating,” he whispered as he circled her chariot, the flames lightning his eyes with an impossible color. “How do you maintain the flames alight? I mean, they have to have a source of energy and I can’t see any, so-“

“I’m Helen,” she said, a smile playing on her lips as she heard his words. “Queen of the Underworld, at your service.” This got his attention.

“Nikola,” he offered back, a smile on his lips that died in only a second as he took in her words. “No. No, no, no. I didn’t die. I can’t be dead. I’m not finished yet,” he pleaded, despair finding its way in his eyes. It was then when she closed the distance between them and took his hand in her own. Somehow, he had expected her to be cold to the touch. Instead, the second their fingers touched, he felt like an electric current had passed through his whole body.

“You’re not dead,” she said on a reassuring tone. “I just…” she made a little pause there, trying to figure out what to say. “You come here every day. Can I ask what is it that you want?”

“The king said he was going to offer a reward to the one who can tame this waterfall,” he explained. It sounded extremely feeble now, when he was face to face with a goddess, but apparently he had decided that honesty was the best policy.

“I know this waterfall,” Helen said with a smile. “My brother wouldn’t be too happy if you succeed.”

“Your brother as in-“

“Poseidon, yes. She’s one of his daughters and he is a pretty protective father, I’m afraid.”

“I see,” Nikola sighed. “I wouldn’t do anything to offend your brother,” he reassured her, “but I have a plan to use this waterfall to help the people in the kingdom and-“

“What my brother finds offensive is not my problem,” Helen smiled. “That’s not why I’m here for.”

“Then why- If this is about me not believing in you-“

“You know, most people would kneel in front of me,” she mused as she took his face in her palm, tapping gently on his chin. “Yet the first thing you want to know is the science behind my chariot.”

“So it is science and not magic,” Nikola said, a victorious gleam in his eyes.

“Is it?” Helen grinned at him. “If anything you should know better than anyone that there’s a fine line between the two. You call yourself a scientist, but the other mortals call you a wizard.”

“So what is it, then? Science or magic?” he asked, too entranced by the whole thing to notice the almost predatory grin she had thrown him.

“Why don’t you come with me and find out?” she asked as she sat in her chariot and tapped the place next to her, beckoning him.


	2. Chapter 2

How do you come to terms with the fact that a realm you thought was nothing but a myth was real? More important, how do you come to terms with the fact that said realm isn’t half as bad as everybody had said? Nikola didn’t know the answer to that. However, as he took the sight of the Underworld in, he couldn’t stop feeling entranced by it. There was darkness in it, yes, but he was sure that with a bit of lightning, its beauty would surface.

He followed Helen quietly along the way, flinching a bit when shadows came close to them, but she just waved them off and they were gone. They seemed to listen to her, not out of fear but more out of respect, and he came to wonder what she had done to earn that. After all, she was death personified, and the people of Earth hated her for that. Yet, her subjects seemed to love her. Maybe they changed their minds once they were dead, or maybe there was something else about her.

“Come on,” she said with a smile as she stopped in her tracks. “Ask. You know you want to.”

“Ask what?”

“Whatever is in that brilliant mind of yours,” she shrugged. “If you could skip the whole ‘why are you a girl and not a middle aged bearded man’, I’d be grateful to you, though. The short answer to that is that people don’t like women being in charge of their dead. Also my brother is a dick so he didn’t bother correcting them.”

“I’m not complaining,” Nikola grinned. “And I wasn’t going to ask that, actually. I was going to ask about my father, as a matter of fact. He was a priest and he didn’t-“

“Worship me, I know. Most people don’t, these days, and the ones that do fear me,” she said with a sigh. “I prefer ignorance, if I am to be honest. As for your father, he is safe in here. Both your parents are, actually. I already sent them to the Elysian Fields, so you don’t need to worry about them.”

“Thank you,” Nikola said letting out a relieved sigh.

“You don’t have that many options when it comes to dying, actually,” Helen said. “Either you are a shade and you stay here with me or I send you forward.”

“So the whole torture thing-“

“No, that is also true. But you’d have to really piss me off for that to happen. Some mortals did, but I would say they’re not that many come to think at it.”

“You know what I’ll ask now, don’t you?” Nikola said as he lowered his eyes to the ground, not daring to look her in the eyes. To that, she only laughed, closing the distance between them. She cupped his chin and lifted it, forcing him to look at her. “Don’t be silly. You couldn’t piss me off even if you tried.”

“Why?”

“You want to do good in the world, Nikola,” she said with a smile. “And OK, your methods are a tad unconventional and all that, but I do appreciate the intention.”

“You seem to like mortals more than your brothers.”

“Well some of them, at least,” Helen said with a flirty smile. “Actually I am the only one that comes in contact with them. Zeus sits on his high throne and watches them with contempt, except for the ones he sleeps with, obviously, and Poseidon… well, he’s too deep in the sea to actually care you know?”

“And you?”

“I came to think that they’re an acquired taste, actually. I want to acquire some of them more than others, of course, but there isn’t a single one of them that died and I didn’t find their life story meaningful to some extent.”

“So you only get to know them after they die.”

“Yes. My brother was pretty specific about that, actually.”

“But you said-“

“You’re not dead, Nikola,” she said with an eye roll. “Here, let me show you something,” she said as she took his hand in her own. There was a flash of lightning and suddenly they were inside the biggest library Nikola had ever seen. They were surrounded by shelves full of books, so high that Nikola wasn’t able to see where they ended.

“This is where I keep record of everyone who has ever lived on Earth,” Helen explained with a smile. I asked the Fates to put all their knowledge in these books and they obeyed me. Each book represents a human life.

“So you can’t change anything about it? The future is set in stone for all of us?”

“No, no, no. These are basically guidelines. As long as you’re still alive, you can write your own story. But if you run out of pages in your book…”

“You die.”

“Yes.” She held her hand high and a book flew in her hands. It was a black book, all bound in leather, and Nikola could see a few lightning marks on its cover. “This is your book, and this is where we are now,” she said as she opened it. “As you can see, you have enough pages left, so you don’t need to worry about that.”

“_The Goddess of the Underworld took him in her kingdom to-“_ Nikola began reading, but she snapped the book in his face before he could finish. “Now now,” she said with a smile. “No peeking. I just wanted to show you that you have enough time left to write your story. There’s no need for you to know the guidelines.”

“You said I can ask anything.”

“Yes.”

“How many mortals have seen this place?”

“The Library of Souls, you mean? Not that many. Most of them were dead when I showed it to them.”

“But not me.”

“No, not you.”

“Why?”

“You know when a goddess bestows a favor upon you, you’re supposed to be grateful, not to question her.”

“Not when it sounds like she’s breaking rules for you. Your brother said you’re not supposed to contact mortals until they die and I will bet my ass you’re not supposed to bring them here either.”

“And what if I’m sick of the rules?” she asked, a defying gleam in her eyes. “What if I’m sick of my brothers telling me what I can do and what I can’t?” Her eyes were burning with a fire he had never seen before and he had to admit, despite himself, that it made her incredibly enticing.

“I get that,” Nikola said with a grin. “People keep telling me I can’t control lightning and yet-“

“Yet there is something in your heart that screams that not only you can do it, but you must.”

“Yes.”

“I knew you’d understand,” she said as she took his hand in her own and tapped it gently. “I need you, Nikola. I can’t tell you why, not yet, but I promise you’ll find out soon enough.”

“And if I say no to whatever you have in mind for me, would that qualify as me pissing you off?”

“No. But wait until you hear what I have to say.”

“Alright. Still, can I ask you something else?”

“Yes.”

“Why me? You could have done this with any mortal.” This brought a naughty smile on her lips. “That is a good question. Meet me by the river Styx tonight and you’ll find out. Until then, feel free to walk around.”

“Even in the library?”

“Don’t push it.” she warned him before she disappeared.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm basically upping the rating for this chapter alone xD. That should give you a hint on what's in it xD. In my defense, it will serve the plot, I promise XD.

He loved enigmas. That much was clear to him. That was the main reason he had accepted to come to the Underworld and learn its secrets. However, he had learned nothing. For every question he had had before coming there, he now had three new ones just waiting to be answered. But none was more complicated the queen of the Underworld herself. She wanted something from him, he could tell that, but he had no idea what it was.

There was also the fact that he couldn’t help being attracted to her. It wasn’t only the fact that she was gorgeous, but there was a fire in her eyes that stirred something inside him. She wanted to do good in the world, no matter if her brothers let her or not and she didn’t care if everyone told her that she won’t be able to do that. And that, Nikola could understand. Even admire. It was ironic, come to think at it, that he was kind of falling in love with the Greek equivalent of the devil, him being the son of a priest and all, but it wasn’t as if he could help it. Besides, she was nice, his mind protested. She had eased his mind about his parents and the shades he had talked to seemed to speak of her with a mixture of love and respect.

He had come earlier than he was expected and he knew he should have made his presence known. That was the right thing to do. However, at that moment, he was doing the complete opposite of that, hoping that the bush he was hiding into was enough to shield her from her eyes. He watched silently as she stepped out of her clothes, watched the flames on her dress slowly extinguish as it was discarded on the ground- he still didn’t figure out what it was that made her clothes burn like that.

It wasn’t that seeing her naked had been exactly on his to-do list when he had come to her realm, but the sight of her pale skin glistening in the moonlight was enough to make him change his mind. There was something royal-like in the way she walked, so light that it didn’t seem like she touched the ground, and his eyes travelled down her body, taking in all of her curves.

She stepped into the water, going further and further, until the water engulfed her completely, hiding herself from his view. It took all his will to restrain himself from making a sound of protest at that. He didn’t want to think what she would do to him if she had caught him spying on her. However, he put that thought aside when she emerged to the surface, eyes closed in bliss as she dipped her head on the back, allowing the waters to engulf her hair. His eyes followed the droplets of water that travelled down her elegant neck to her chest. Her breasts were full and perfect and he felt his insides tighten when he noticed how hard her nipples were. He could almost feel what they would have tasted like on his tongue, as she would have been moaning and shivering underneath him.

“Enjoying the view, doctor Tesla?” she asked, a smirk on her lips as she opened her eyes. That brought him down to earth a lot faster than he would have liked.

“What? No. I wasn’t-“ he tried to deny quickly, but it was too late. She had gone out of the water and closed the distance between them, the flames engulfing her as soon as her feet touched the ground. By the time she got to him, she was fully dressed again and he kneeled in front of her, trembling.

“Please turn me into a pigeon,” he whispered and she threw him a confused look.

“If it has to be something, please make it a pigeon. I would hate to spend the rest of my life as a stag, and-“ she stopped him right there, placing a finger over his lips.

“Right. You know about my niece.”

“Yes, and I know what she did when she caught someone staring at her, so please-“

“How many times do I have to tell you I’m not like the rest of my family, Nikola?” Helen laughed. “The thing about Artemis is that she’s not exactly into guys, you know? So catching one of them spying on her does tend to make her a bit pissed.”

“And you?”

“Are you asking me what I’m into?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

_Because I want you. Because I would like nothing more than to hear you scream my name_, he thought.

“Curiosity?” he said on a sheepish tone. He still didn’t know how far he could push it with her.

“You do realize you were not early to our meeting, right?”

“I wasn’t?”

“And that this is my kingdom so if somebody hides himself in the bushes around here… I do tend to notice that.”

“You knew I was here.” Nikola said, realization dawning upon him. “You knew I was watching. But why…”

“You know, I was about to say that I am very much into brilliant electrical engineers, as a matter of fact,” Helen said, as her fingers found their way into his hair. “But you’re starting to make me doubt the brilliant part.”

“What do you want from me, Helen?” he challenged, daring to look her in the eyes for the first time. He watched as her eyes travelled to his lips and fixated there, her tongue darting over her lower lip for a brief second.

“Kiss me,” she said, half pleading and half ordering him to. He made a move, trying to stand up, but she placed a firm hand on his shoulder. “I didn’t say you could get up, Nikola,” she whispered, her voice laced with desire.

The dress she was wearing was long, covering her legs in crimson flames that somehow didn't seem to burn her skin. He reached a tentative hand to touch her, his eyes never leaving hers as she watched him with an amused yet challenging look. The flames were warm to the touch, he discovered, but they didn't burn his skin. He touched her knee almost reverently and the flames parted, leaving her skin exposed to his touch. Her dress fell on the ground as if it was discarded by an invisible hand, but none of them was paying attention to it anymore. His lips were cold against her skin and she shivered a bit as they travelled up her thigh, leaving a hot path of kisses on her flesh.

It made her feel exposed somehow, the way she stood naked in front of him, her core throbbing with anticipation as his lips got closer and closer to it. She had spent months fantasizing about this, about having his lips on her, but nothing could have prepared her for what it actually felt like.

His hands travelled up her legs, caressing and exploring every inch of her skin, and she closed her eyes in bliss, as she felt her knees soften.

She could barely hold back a moan as his index found her entrance and got inside her in a swift movement. It was gone before she had the chance to register his touch, but it only left her wanting for more.

“God, you’re so wet,” he whispered, his breath hot on her flesh, and she suddenly felt the urge to smack him over his mouth.

“Can we _please_ leave my brother out of this?” she said as she rolled her eyes. “Unless you’re talking about your god, which well. He’s a nice guy, but we don’t talk that much. Still not someone I want to think about while you’re –_oh_.” Whatever else she was going to say died on her lips as she felt his fingers parting her. His tongue followed soon after, its tip teasing her as it went up, stopping just before touching her clit. He repeated the motion over and over again, his tongue lapping at her juices as it went by, each of his touches causing her insides to tighten. She could feel the pressure building in the lower side of her abdomen and she stuck her fingers into his hair, pressing his mouth tighter on her.

He could tell her legs were giving away so he placed a firm hand on her ass, holding her in place as his mouth found her clit and sucked on it, causing her to scream in pleasure.

“Nikola, please,” she begged, barely able to breathe as his tongue teased her more, circling her clit with swift movements.

“What do you want?” he whispered, his breath hot, his voice laced with a touch of contentment that made him hotter than should have been possible. It didn’t help that she wasn’t too coherent at the moment.

“You. Take me,” she commanded and he soon obliged, his fingers finding their way inside her. He stroke at her folds, his mouth still trained on her clit, savoring each moan that got out of her throat. Soon enough, she lost all control and rode his fingers, allowing them deeper inside her with each of her thrusts. She came screaming his name, her whole body shuddering under his touch as he drank her in, his tongue happily cleaning up the mess he had made.

She pushed him on his back, her body pressing him on the ground and she kissed him, hard, relishing her taste on his lips. Her tongue penetrated his mouth almost violently, her teeth biting on his lower lip.

"You said you were going to tell me why you brought me here," he said, causing a smirk to appear on her lips.

"I thought that was painfully obvious, by now," she said as she straddled him. He was deliciously hard, his clothes doing very little to hide that.

"Oh," he breathed out, a moan escaping his lips as she grabbed him and squeezed, hard. "And I take you are pleased with me, my goddess?" he asked, his tone teasing. The smirk she threw back at him was almost evil.

"Oh, Nikola... we're just getting started."


	4. Chapter 4

The ground felt cold under his back when he woke up, his brain trying to make sense of the events that had happened the previous night. For a second, he thought it had been nothing but a dream, but as his eyes grew accustomed with the dim light, he saw her lying on top of him, her head on his chest.

“Good morning,” she said, throwing him a lazy smile. “How are you feeling?”

“As if an insatiable goddess has been using me as her sex toy for the last nine hours.” His grin was infectious and she didn’t even bother resisting the urge to kiss it away, her lips teasing his.

“I’m not that insatiable,” she protested. “Though I have to say, you more than rose up to the challenge. I mean I expected you to get creative, but-“

“How often do you do this, Helen?” he asked, a tint of sadness in his eyes.

“Do what?”

“This. Set your eyes on a mortal, half kidnap him, seduce him-“

“I didn’t kidnap you,” Helen protested.

“I came because you told me you’ll explain the chariot to me.”

“Which I admit it’s not the most usual pickup line, but I had a hunch it will work on you.”

“Well it did, but that’s not why I came.”

“You came because you wanted to figure me out. I know.”

“I came because I was fascinated by you. Not sexually, I mean not at first, but-“

“It’s magic,” she said, cutting him off. “The chariot. There’s energy everywhere around us. Mortals can’t feel it, but I can just tap into it and-“

“Create fire out of thin air.”

“Yes.”

“I see,” Nikola said on a contemplative tone. He seemed lost in his thoughts and she couldn’t help a smile at that. “You can try and replicate that, if you’d like. I don’t mind.”

“Damn, and I thought I was going to need to persuade you for this,” he smirked at her. “I had a plan for that and everything.”

“Oh?” she challenged him as she straddled him. “You want to tell me more about that?”

He didn’t get the chance to show her what he meant, however, because she heard a boat rowing nearby. She jumped on her feet, leaving Nikola watching her in the grass with a surprised look.

“Stay here. Don’t say a word,” she instructed him before going towards the river, the flames engulfing her as she walked.

He stayed there for a while and then followed her anyway, curiosity getting the best of him as time passed by.

A boat had pulled to the shore and an old man got out of it, dragging another man with him. The younger man had a haunted look upon his face as he got out of the boat, his eyes searching desperately around him. The top of his head was shaved and the hair around it looked burned. His blood vessels seemed to have been ruptured, blood clots from them being visible under his skin.

“William Klemmer, just arrived,” the old man said with a sadistic grin. “They did him good, didn’t they? He killed his wife with an axe, this one. But I’d say he got what he deserved in the end.”

“Charon, I told you that I am the one to decide punishments around here,” Helen admonished him as she circled the young man.

“I know this is probably not what you were expecting,” she said with a sigh. “I’m Helen. Queen of the Underworld.”

“I’m in Hades?” the man asked on an incredulous tone.

“Yes. Sorry to disappoint.”

“I can’t say I didn’t expect a version of hell, ma’am. Not the Greek one, necessarily, but I suppose I had that one coming.”

“How did you die?” Helen asked, her voice trembling a bit. She had a bad feeling about this.

“Got electrocuted, ma’am. Or at least that’s what they told me. They said it would be more humane than hanging, but I think somebody was very wrong about that.”

“It looks nice, though, doesn’t it?” Charon asked with a grin as he took a step back to admire William. “Looks as if mighty Zeus himself struck him down.”

“My brother is too busy these days to handle mortals, we both know that. The ones he’s not sleeping with, at least.”

“Do you know what kind of current they used?” Helen asked.

“I heard them talk before pulling the plug on me, ma’am. They said it was a new kind of current, more deadly than anything else.”

“Of course they did,” Helen said between gritted teeth. “You didn’t deserve this, William. What you did to your wife was wrong, but you were just-“

“I guess Tom isn’t content with cats and dogs anymore, is he?” Nikola asked as he got out of the bushes. “I know you told me to stay hidden, Helen,” he said before she could protest, “but I wanted to talk to him.”

“You,” William spat at him. He struggled with Charon, who let him go with an amused look, watching him as he ran towards Nikola. “If I’m happy about anything, is that you got in hell before I did. Do you have any idea how much it hurts, you sick fuck?” William yelled at him.

“It wasn’t meant to be used like this!” Nikola cried in despair. “You have to believe me. I never wanted that to happen. All I wanted was to make electricity available to everyone.”

“Well I got more electricity than I could have ever wished for, that’s for sure.”

“Helen, please,” Nikola pleaded. “I have to go back and try to fix this.”

“I know,” she said with a sigh. “As long as I’m keeping you here, there’s nobody stopping Edison from slandering you and your work.”

“So you understand.”

“Of course I do. Charon, please get Nikola back to Earth.” Helen said with a sigh. “I can hear prayers, you know? So if you want to come back, just say so, alright?”

“Not _if_,” Nikola whispered as he closed the distance between them and took her hands in his own. “_When_. I am deeply sorry for leaving, Helen, but-“

“He’s not leaving anywhere,” Charon said as he sat down in his boat, his grin now wider than before. “Boss’s orders.”

“What is the meaning of this?” Helen asked, anger filling her voice. “I am your boss, I’m telling you he needs to go back to Earth.”

“Sorry, _boss_,” Charon said on an ironic tone, “but you’ve been overruled. I’ not allowed to take him back.”

“By whose orders?”

“By mine, sis.” a man said as he materialized out of thin air. He closed the distance between him and Helen, light engulfing him with every step he took.

“I thought I was pretty clear about the rules of this realm when I gave it to you, sis,” he said, his laughter booming around them. “If a mortal eats or drinks anything from the Underworld, they’re doomed to stay here forever.”

“I know, Zeus,” Helen said as she rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t planning to hold him here against his will. Do you think I was stupid enough to actually feed him?”

“Also, I’d appreciate if you taught him to kneel before me,” Zeus said, ignoring her. “It’s enough his work kind of undermines my authority.”

“He doesn’t kneel before anyone,” Helen spat at him.

“Except you, that is,” Zeus said on an amused tone. “But we’re going to change that.” He snapped his fingers at that and Nikola fell to his knees, his shoulders pushed down by an invisible force.

“Helen, what does he mean?” he asked, the pain making it almost impossible for him to speak.

“Leave him alone!” Helen cried out before putting herself between Nikola and her brother. “Also you tell me why in Hades he isn’t allowed to leave.”

“So I was right, you do love him,” Zeus said on a contemplative tone. “Not enough to keep him here, but it is sort of funnier this way, come to think at it.”

“He’s free to leave whenever he wants.”

“No he’s not. I told you, if he eats anything from around here-“

“And I told you-“

“Anything or _anyone_. And don’t try to deny that part. I heard you screaming from Olympus. Nice job, by the way.” he said, addressing Nikola now. “Last time she screamed like that she was fucking a centaur, and they’re half horses, so yeah. Don’t know how you did it, but I think you have a few months left before turning into a shade. I suggest you two use that time well.”

“That’s a technicality and you know it,” Helen said. “If this is about last time-“

“Of course it is. Speaking of which, if you try and take him back I'll do exactly what I did last time. Maybe change the body parts a bit. But you did this to him, don’t forget that.”

“He’s right,” Nikola whispered. “You knew that this was going to happen. You were the one who told me to eat you out.”

“Not specifically,” Helen said on a pleading tone, but he wasn’t listening to her anymore. It seemed that Zeus had lifted the weight upon his shoulders, because he stood up, tears filling his eyes as he watched her.

“Nikola, please, you have to believe me,” she said as she closed the distance between them, but he took a step back.

“What did it say in the book, Helen?” Nikola asked. “My book. The one in the library.”

“This book, you mean?” Zeus asked as he extended his hand and the book materialized in it. “See for yourself,” he said as he threw it to Nikola.

He opened the book with trembling hands and turned the pages until he got to the one she hadn’t let him read the previous day._ “_

The Goddess of the Underworld took him in her kingdom to make him her king”, he read out loud. “For if there was something she was sure of, was that she had finally found her match.” There were only a few blank pages left after that, he noticed as he dropped the book on the ground.

“I was going to ask,” she whispered, but he ran away from her. “I was going to ask!” she said, now screaming, but he didn’t hear her.


	5. Chapter 5

“Why the hell did you have to do that?” she screamed, but Zeus only threw her an amused look, leaning against a tree.

“Do you know how many temples there are left on Earth?” he asked. “They’re all ruins, mostly, and people are not going to build new ones anymore. You know why?”

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

“They think we’re redundant,” Zeus spat at her. “And that is mostly because of you. You gave them fire, and they started thinking that maybe they could handle themselves without our help. In all honesty, electricity is a lot more useful to them than fire was.”

“You wanted to kill Nikola before he could do it?” Helen asked, unable to believe her ears. She held her hand at her back, forming a fireball in it.

“I’m not an idiot, Helen,” Zeus said as he rolled his eyes. “I tried that with your last boyfriend. Didn’t do me any good. Mortals are… persistent. If I only killed Nikola, some other guy would have discovered alternating current eventually. No. What I want to do is to make mortals realize that electricity can’t help them, that we are the only ones who can. I’ll let them have it and wait until they discover it’s bullshit.”

“But you need Edison to do it.”

“Exactly, if I am to prove anything. Which is why I wanted your boyfriend dead. But it will take him a while to die, so until then, you can still have some fun with him, you know?”

“Do you think he will want to even look at me now?!” Helen yelled as she threw herself at her brother, fireball burning in her hand. She didn’t get the chance to hit him, however, because he grabbed her hand, stopping her in midair.

“You can’t hurt me, you know that” Zeus sighed. “Downside of you being my sister, sadly. On the bright side, however,” he said as he twisted her arm, forcing her to kneel in front of him, “I can hurt you.”

“More than you already did, you mean?” Helen asked, hissing in pain. She tried to fight him off, but he was too powerful for her.

“I don’t appreciate my sisters fighting me. You should ask Hera.”

“I know what you did to her.”

“Then if you don’t want to end up hanging by the sky like she did, I suggest you take my advice. Tesla still has a while until he turns into a shade so if you really want you can have your way with him for a while. Also, he’s a mortal. Consent doesn’t need to have anything to do with them.”

“Of course you’d say that,” Helen spat at him. “At least I don’t need to shape shift so I can get a bigger dick like you do.”

“You stripped in front of him, Helen,” Zeus pointed out. “And since he’s not blind or gay… yeah, it doesn’t seem you gave him that much of a choice in the first place either.”

“I love him.”

“That’s your problem,” Zeus shrugged. “I’ll leave you two love birds alone now, though. I mean I’ll probably watch, but from a comfortable spot in Olympus. The Underworld isn’t exactly my favorite place to be actually.” He turned her back at her but before he had a chance to disappear, a fireball hit him in the back. He didn’t deign to turn around, but as he disappeared into thin air, a lightning crack from the sky, pinning Helen to the ground. She collapsed, screaming in pain, all her senses numb as electricity passed through her.

As soon as she could move, she walked her realm, trying to find Nikola. This wasn’t going to stay like that, she decided. Her brother wasn’t going to have his way with them.

She found him hours later, walking in the asphodel fields, a sad look upon his face.

“Please send me to the Elysian fields, at least,” he said with a sigh when he saw her. “It’s the least you can do. If I can’t go back to Earth, at least let me be with my parents.”

“Who said you can’t go back to Earth?”

“Your brother. I ate-“

“I heard him, yes,” Helen cut him off. “Do you want to go back, though?”

“My work isn’t finished.”

“Not what I asked.”

“Helen, you’ve seen that man. He died a horrible death, and if I don’t go back and prove that alternating current isn’t dangerous-“

“Many more might follow. I know. And then Edison will have his current and electricity will be gone soon enough.”

“Gone?”

“You know Edison’s system isn’t viable. Not on long term. People will just give up if they don’t have an alternative. But they could. They could have you.”

“But how?”

“I can help you,” Helen offered.

“Like you helped me before?” Nikola asked on an incredulous tone. “I can’t trust you anymore, Helen.”

“I didn’t know you’ll be stuck here, you have to believe me.”

“You’re the queen of this realm, Helen. You’re supposed to know its rules.”

“Zeus took advantage of a technicality.”

“So you say.”

“Nikola, look into my eyes,” she pleaded as she took his hand in her own. “I swear I will help you get back to Earth. I would rather die than keep you here against your will. I’m not saying I don’t like you here, but if it makes you unhappy-“

“You’re immortal, so the dying part isn’t exactly convincing,” Nikola pointed out. “But you have to tell me everything this time. Starting with why you chose me. And don’t leave anything behind. What’s that deal with me being your match? I’m mortal, I could never-“

“I fell in love with someone else, a long time ago,” Helen confessed. “He was brilliant and brave and wanted to help people, just like you. A little less easy on the eyes than you are, but we had our passionate moments.”

“What happened?”

“I may have sneaked him into Olympus and helped him steal something from there,” Helen smiled sheepishly for a second, but her look turned serious afterwards. “My brother found out, however, and as you can probably guess he wasn’t very pleased about it.”

“I guess he hates your taste in men,” Nikola joked nervously, but Helen wasn’t in the mood to laugh.

“That’s one way of putting it, yes. What he did to you was a punishment for me as well, by the way. He thought that watching my lover as he was being eaten alive wasn’t enough for me so this time he made me responsible for your punishment.”

“Whoa. Eaten alive? As in-“

“Yes. I know people tend to forget the part with me helping Prometheus when they tell his story, but yes. He was the one. He got freed in the end, but he doesn’t want to see me anymore. I don’t blame him for that. I vowed to never let anyone into Olympus after that.”

“So what, I remind you of him?”

“You did at first, yes. You still do, in some ways, that is why I looked you up in the first place, but you’re different. He was a Titan, so being brilliant was kind of expected of him, but you-“

“I’m just a mortal.”

“For now. Actually, I have a plan.”

“Will it get me back on Earth?”

“And so much more. It’s just that-“Helen hesitated a bit, as if she was trying to decide if she should carry on with her plan or not. “You’ll be able to hurt me afterwards,” she continued after a while. “Me and my brother and any god that gets in your way.”

“I don’t want that,” Nikola said quickly. “Not you, I mean.”

“It’s a package deal, I’m afraid. Also there is a very good chance you will want to hurt me once we finish.”

“Why?”

“That’s for later,” Helen smiled. “What you need to care about now is that it will get you back on Earth. You’ll be able to carry on with your work and even have a way to prove that your current isn’t dangerous. It will be almost as we never met, with one very important difference.”

“Which is?”

“You don't have to step foot in this place ever again, if you don't want to.”

“And when I die?”

“That’s the thing. You won’t die. Not if I have a say in that.”

“Do you want to make me a god?”

“You mean other than the sex god you are already?” Helen asked, a smile playing on her lips. “I would, but my brother would never let me. No, I have something else in mind.”

“What?”

“I’m going to get you into Olympus and we’ll steal something from there,” she said with a mischievous grin.

**Author's Note:**

> For Teslen appreciation week - day 6 - alternate universe


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